Gabriela Rivitz

Check out the café menu board- be sure to look out for specials.

The SHS Café serves up life skills while dishing out breakfast to hungry students. Below, Dina Weber discusses the Cafe and its impact on students.

Q: How long have you been involved in the Café program?

A: I have been involved in the Café for 12 years, and I have been in charge of the Café, running it, for 10 years.

Q: So you didn’t start the Café?

A: I did not. The Café has been around for many, many years. I don’t even know the exact amount of years. Through the years, it has definitely changed. It [actually] started out as a sit down restaurant. Kids were able to come in, and the students would actually cook fried eggs, and they would make homemade breakfast sandwiches and things like that. It was really cool. I never saw it that way, so obviously it hasn’t been that way for a long time. As rules changed and things changed, we had to adapt. [By the time] I became more involved in it, we [didn’t] cook anything from scratch. We just heat things up. The things that we make are smoothies, but …it’s not cooking. It’s kind of just preparing, and we are allowed to prepare things.

Q: Were there any initial policies or menu items that didn’t work out and had to be changed or adapted? Could you elaborate on the switch from sit down to Café style?

A: Yes. There’s more just because we’re bound by state regulations. At the time when it was a sit down, we had a different type of sink. We all go to restaurants, but we don’t always see what the kitchens and the facilities look like. When you have a restaurant, you have to have a certain type of sink that has three basins in it for soaking, washing and rinsing. For a long time, we had that kind of sink because it was the type of food that was prepared. Over time we changed it. When we stopped [cooking] foods, we were able to get a regular sink, which was a lot easier for students to use to help with washing the pans and doing the cleanup because none of us at home have three basins for sinks. That was kind of cumbersome with the prep for the Café with washing and all that. What we have sold has definitely changed throughout the years. The biggest thing is we want students to be as independent as possible. We find that we have to have a balance between students being able to gain that sense of independence while also practicing those functional skills that we take for granted. We have our therapists who come in periodically if it works with their session timings, and they also help the students in the café to work on these fine motor tasks. We just look at all the little things that make the big thing, so we really have to break things down piece by piece.

Q: Where does the Café source its supplies?

A: We order them from Gordon’s, and we also order from Cisco, those are the two big ones we get it through.

Q: How did you help come up with the menu items for the Café after it transitioned away from sit down style?

A: We have always sold cinnamon rolls, some type of breakfast sandwich, some type of hash browns and snack items. We had to change things after COVID. We used to [have students involved] in the purchasing of the items, we used to go on trips to Sam’s Club. We would purchase a lot of our things from there. Then, when COVID hit, we couldn’t even open the Café. When things started to reopen slowly, going to Sam’s Club was just not something that was safe enough to do. [As a result,] we started kind of talking and figuring out what are other ways that we could get stock for the Café that would still be something that the kids were used to preparing. But everything was different, so that’s when we made the switch [to] ordering things online, and we stopped going to Sam’s Club. The biggest challenge of that was from a sales standpoint, a cinnamon roll is a cinnamon roll, right? [When we were getting them from] the Sam’s Club, we would take the cinnamon rolls, we would unwrap them, put them in a container and the students would microwave them and they knew which buttons to press. When that changed, the cinnamon rolls now come in a box, and they’re not individually packaged. We had to adjust what each task was for the students.

Q: What’s your most popular item?

A: Our most popular items are our breakfast sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, hash browns and the iced coffee.

Q: Has the administration been supportive of the Café? How do you guys work together?

A: Yes, always. It is a great program, and Ms. Short has always backed us. Dr. Rodenbacher backs us [by] coming down and saying hi to the kids, placing orders when they have meetings, etc. They’ll give our students an opportunity to [work] because we do special ordering for teachers and staff. So they will always kind of call down if they have a meeting: “Hey, can I get coffee for four or five people?” And then, our students use the carts and they go and they deliver it. Our administration at the high school has always celebrated all of our students’ successes with us. They are an incredible support system. And not just for the students, but for me as well.

Q: Tell me about how you guys incorporate the special needs kids?

A: So we have it broken up into stations: there is somebody who works at the register, somebody who works where the hash browns are located and somebody who is on the microwave side. Typically we have three students, but usually no more than four. We are really working on work readiness–whether or not they were efficient and on task during the period, following all of the instructor directives, exhibiting a positive work or behavior attitude and then proper handling of food items. The biggest thing with the Café is that it’s a safe place to fail because it’s still a classroom. I always say, “We are not running a McDonald’s.”

Q: I can only imagine juggling the Café on top of classroom teaching [must be difficult], what keeps you doing this? What has been the most rewarding?

A: It is always the students. It’s never anything else. There is nothing greater than working with a kid, especially one who has struggled, and then having that moment where they finally get it and knowing that you’re providing a learning opportunity for them that can really help them after high school. There’s just nothing better in the whole world. When you have success doing something that is work related, it really is an eye opening experience for parents and for the students themselves, and it’s great to share those moments with the team.

Q: Are there any new menu items to look out for this school year, new policies, anything changing?

A: Not as far as I know. We did create a new menu just to make it a little more simplified for the students, and I did put an area for specials because periodically (sometimes seasonally), we like to see what’s available. As long as it aligns, then we’d like to incorporate it into the Café, so there’s an area for specials on the menu to look out for. We’re always on the hunt for new items. I have a board where I ask students [for their requests]. I just have to make sure that it aligns with the state and what we are allowed to have.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

A: What’s always important to me is that the Café stays alive, and I know you ask me: “Why do you do this?” I do this because of all the stuff that I get from the students and everything, but the Café would not be possible if students and staff did not come to the Café to make purchases. We do rely on it, so we are kind of self-sufficient in that regard. Everything that comes in goes out, and having those experiences allow the students to have that practice. If we didn’t have any students or staff coming in, our students would just be standing there. We very much heavily rely on everybody coming in. We’re thankful for the teachers who allow students to leave their classes to come and purchase something, and the students that come from senior commons or from study hall. We just always want to thank them and give a shout out to them because they keep us going.

If you’re interested in supporting the Café, you can visit them during first and second period to order breakfast.